Prior to 1996, U.S. Navy airborne tactical reconnaissance systems used film-based camera systems. Use of film camera technology required the reconnaissance aircraft to return to the carrier after taking the desired picture. Upon landing, the film canister was unloaded and carried to the carrier's photo laboratory for processing. Once processing was complete, the film negative roll was visually scanned on a light table to find the desired picture of the target area. Once the target area was detected, the negative was cropped and a contact hardcopy print was developed. This hard copy was used for final target review or placed on a scanner to generate a digital copy of the hardcopy photo for subsequent distribution. In many cases, this process could take several hours after an aircraft landed to obtain a picture of a desired target area. With the introduction of digital cameras into Navy reconnaissance systems starting in the mid-1990's, film-based processing was no longer required. An example of such early digital camera systems includes the Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System—Digital Imagery (commonly known in the industry as TARPS-DI), wherein digital recorders were used to store the imagery taken by these digital cameras instead of film-based canisters. The data bricks, or tapes, from these digital recorders could be loaded directly into the imagery exploitation stations on the carrier without the additional processing required by the film-based systems. Although the imagery was already in digital form, the digital imagery still needed to be screened on the exploitation station to find the desired target area. With the introduction of real-time wide-band RF digital data links into reconnaissance systems with digital cameras, the Navy obtained the capability to transmit real-time digital imagery to the carrier from the aircraft as the images were taken. Examples of such reconnaissance systems include the 1999 Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System—Completely Digital (commonly known in the industry as TARPS-CD), the 2001 Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System—Full Capability (commonly known in the industry as TARPS-FCAP), and the 2002 Shared Reconaissance Pod (commonly known in the industry as SHARP). Transit back to and landing on the carrier was no longer required to obtain an image in the intelligence center (“intel center”) assuming the aircraft was within link range. When compared to the film-based reconnaissance systems, the use of digital cameras with real-time digital data links significantly reduced the time required to take a picture and have it analyzed in the carrier's intel center. Reduction of the time required to get a picture to the intel center is critical to be able to attack time-critical targets, such as mobile targets. This time is referred to as the “sensor-to-shooter” time. Although the application of digital cameras and digital links into reconnaissance systems significantly reduced the sensor-to-shooter time for many missions compared to film-based systems, the link range of the digital links was still a limiting factor. Most wide-band digital links used on tactical aircraft are line of sight links and hence limited by the curvature of the earth to approximately 200 nautical miles. In these circumstances, this distance limitation negates the real-time use of the digital link and requires the reconnaissance aircraft to once again land on the carrier to drop off its digital recorder brick, or tape, in order for the imagery to be exploited on the intel systems. Significant time is lost because the imagery cannot be exploited or reviewed in the aircraft prior to landing on the carrier and loading the digital recorder information into the carrier's exploitation systems.